Doc On The Run Podcast

I just did a second opinion consultation with a runner who called and said she was diagnosed with a grade five stress fracture.  The doctor didn't actually explain what that meant. He just said it was serious. Stress fracture are rated by severity from grade one through a grade five. Grade five is obviously the worst to runner. She wanted to know if she needed a bone stimulator since her stress fr...

I was just doing a second opinion consultation with a runner who was really stressed out. She said, "I'm going to lose all my aerobic fitness. I'm going to get weaker. I'm going to get stiff or my running form is going to be terrible!” There are some mental tricks you can use that will be very helpful anytime you get an over-training injury, whether it's a stress fracture, Achilles tendonitis, or...

The fifth metatarsal bone goes from your midfoot out to your little toe. And if you break it, it could be one of three things.  You could have a shaft fracture, which heals pretty uneventfully, most of the time.  You could have an evulsion fracture, where it actually rips a piece of bone off when your peroneus brevis tendon tries to pull so hard to keep your foot under you, that it actually cracks...

This episode actually comes from a YouTube comment. This runner saw an image from when I was running a 50 mile trail race wearing Hoka trail running shoes.  He said, "I would never take advice from a coach, a biomechanics expert, or a running injury expert who was wearing Hokas." Would you take your running coach seriously if he was wearing clown shoes?  Well, that's what we're talking about today...

Today's episode actually comes from a podcast listener who had a question:  "I got an MRI just to give me the green light to resume training and it showed a grade three stress reaction of the left tibia. Do you think I can run?"  Deciding whether or not you can run with a stress fracture really depends on understanding how bad it was when it started, and how bad it is right now.  How bad is a grad...

Today’s episode comes from a podcast listener with a stress fracture and wants to get back to running. Jennifer says, "I went to see my doctor again today for my MRI results. He told me that I still have a stress fracture.  I was a bit confused, because after 10 weeks without running I thought there would have been more signs of healing.  So I asked if he could see a fracture line and he said, 'Ye...

I had a really great question from a patient on a second opinion webcam visit.  “I have a partially torn plantar fascia. Can I keep running and let it heal later?” He had purchased The Runner's Heel Pain course and based on his self-diagnosis, he concluded that he definitely did not just have plantar fasciitis. It was more likely plantar fasciosis with a small tear in the plantar fascia.  Unfortun...

It's no secret..I like to talk about running injuries! But after so many years working with injured runners, helping runenrs race after they get an injury, and showing them how to maintain their running fitness while injured: I have uncovered a couple of "secrets" that really help injured runners most.  If you have a running injury and you're trying to figure out what to do, if you're confused why...

Extensor tenosynovitis is one of the running injuries doctors don't often talk about simply because it's a relatively rare condition.  But extensor tenosynovitis can be really painful when running.  Sometimes it's actually misdiagnosed as a stress fracture, both by doctors or by the runners themselves.  Any misdiagnosis can force you to take time off of running unnecessarily. Today on the Doc On T...

Just this weekend, I got a call from somebody who said that she was out on a run, she felt a pop in the back of her heel, she went to the emergency room and she was told that she has a partial tear in her Achilles tendon. I'm not really sure if they did x-rays or an MRI or an ultrasound or anything to confirm that, but the doctor seemed very confident that she had torn her Achilles tendon. And so,...

Every day I talk to injured runners who ask me to help them recover faster so they can run sooner. Some runners call me for a one-time, one-hour consultation. Some runners call me and hire me to literally coach them day-by-day for a full month. Others who don’t want to spend that kind of money, simply join a coaching group where they can get advice for an entire month and join group web-cam sessio...

Today's episode actually comes from a question that is a real-world situation. Should I take Lovenox after an ankle fracture? I broke my ankle. The doctor gave me a prescription. Should I take this thing or not? Is this appropriate for me? This is actually a great question and it points out a couple of things I think are worth hearing. Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we're talking about wheth...

Most of the runners who call me when they are inured have hired a running coach. Some of them don’t realize they have a running coach. A coach is someone who one who instructs players in the fundamentals of a sport and directs strategy. When you sign up for online coaching, and get a marathon training plan, you hired a coach. When you go to the doctor and ask for help with a stress fracture you hi...

A body at rest remains at rest. Now that is a law of physics. That's not something I came up with, but it definitely applies to running injuries. This is what I see happen over and over and over. Somebody gets a stress fracture, they go to the doctor, the doctor takes an X-ray, they don't see a crack. They don't see anything on the X-ray. And they say, "Well, I don't see anything, but you have a s...

If you want to get back to running as quickly as possible you need 3 essential ingredients: Recovery, Strength and Balance When something is weaker because it is still recovering, this approach is all the more important. NEWSFLASH: you can work on recovery, building strength, and better balance at any stage of injury. Get moving now! Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we’re talking about the 3 I...

The action you and ONLY YOU take are all that matters now. I can show you the way, but I can’t carry you there. It takes work. Lots of work. It’s like training for a marathon, without cheering crowds or medals. The speed with which you return to running ONLY depends on how much effort you put into your recovery. Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we’re talking about how no one can save you.

There is NO over-training. There is ONLY under-recovering. You did not run too much. You made a mistake in the order of your workouts or the intensity of one workout or in the strategy you used to rebuild tissue. That is EXACTLY the same mistake runners make when they get injured again after “healing” an injury. Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we’re taking about running injuries can happen to...

The premise is that your crazy physical activity is the problem. The promise is that you will heal if you simply sit still.. long enough. The hope is that recovery will magically take place through sacrifice like a perverse form of penance for your exercise sins…crazy. But a prescription of 100% Rest only guarantees 100% loss of fitness.  Today on the Doc On The Run podcast we're talking about the...

If you're a runner with a running injury, you need to listen up.  The biggest problem with running injuries is not that you have a broken bone, not that you have a sprained ankle, and not that you have Achilles tendinitis.  The biggest problem is that you're going to lose your running fitness while you recover from that injury, if you're not really proactive. Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, w...

I was recently doing a presentation about how runners go wrong.  They know all of this stuff about training, running biomechanics, running form and nutrition. And that's not enough. Runners still get injured and have to call me...even after they've seen other doctors. Today, on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we're talking about the number one cause of confusion in injured runners. 

This episode comes from Amanda who wanted to know how to tell the difference between contact dermatitis and athlete's foot.  It's summertime, she's been running, her feet sweat a lot, and she noticed a bunch of peeling skin on her feet.  She assumed it might be athlete's foot, but one of her friends said it might be dermatitis. This is a great question!  How can a runner tell athlete's foot from c...

This episode actually comes from a visit with a runner where I was asked to check her foot.  This runner happens to also be a physician.  She assumed that she was having plantar fasciitis because she had some pain in her heel when she was running, and after her run, she would have a little bit of pain when she was just walking around. Because she was having this occasional weird twinge of heel pai...

I know blisters are not really an exciting topic.  But I can tell you one thing for sure, if you're running a marathon and you get a blister, it is going to wreck your performance.  You cannot perform at your best if you're thinking about some little stinging aching pain that you're getting because of a blister, and it really can make a real dent in your training too. Today on the Doc On The Run P...

I just spoke with a runner during a telemedicine visit who has been having some pain that is flaring up in a couple of different workouts. He's now a little worried that he's going to wind up with something that sidelines him. He remembered that he was told he had some kind of "limb length discrepancy."  Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we're talking about limb length discrepancy compensation...

Today's episode comes from a recent group coaching call for recovering runners. All of the runners on these calls have been injured and they're getting back to running, and today's call will help you understand several things. Even if you don't have cuboid pain, even if you didn't have flatfoot surgery, this will help you think about your pain differently and help you look for opportunities to mai...